Electric vehicles surge to 56 million globally as China dominates

Electric vehicles have never been more popular, according to a new study. German research group Centre for Solar Energy and Hydrogen Research Baden-Württemberg (ZSW) tallied up the global fleet to be 56 million strong, with the majority concentrated in China.

The world’s largest auto market accounted for 31.4 million EVs or 56 percent. Distantly following is the US, the home of the most capitalized carmaker, Tesla, with 6.4 million. Germany comes third with 2.6 million, and the United Kingdom and France round off the top five with 2.1 million each. Norway is sixth on the list with one million but remains the highest by a wide margin in terms of per capita.

The study, meanwhile, highlights an interesting trend: new registrations are increasingly outpacing fleet growth. The difference rose from hundreds of thousands to 3.7 million in the last few years, primarily attributed to China, where the increasing number of older stocks is leading to more decommissioning.

China has seen a rise in EV adoption powered by a thriving local production scene. Tesla is battling ever-increasing competition from the likes of BYD, Nio, Xpeng, and the latest ‘wunderkind’ Xiaomi. The tussle is going global as more Chinese brands target overseas markets to expand their footprint.

ZSW’s count covered fully electric vehicles, plug-in hybrids, and EVs with range extenders. It also accounted for EVs going out of service or being scrapped.